Daphne Bramham: Let’s make equality a legacy of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup

Carrie Serwetnyk, the first female inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame, is demanding change in the sporting world. Her non-profit organization, Why the Women’s World Cup Matters, aims to raise awareness about gender discrimination in sports.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

Carrie Serwetnyk is fearless and focused — traits that explain why she was the first female inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame.

But these days, the former national team member is no longer on the soccer pitch. Instead, she’s playing on a different field, taking on the soccer establishment both in Canada and internationally.

With no less passion, dedication and energy than she put into soccer, Serwetnyk is asking difficult questions and demanding change.

Why doesn’t the constitutional guarantee of equity extend to sports funding? Why are there are so few women coaching and managing teams? Why doesn’t somebody fix this and make that Canada’s legacy as host of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup?

Last year, Serwetnyk founded a non-profit organization called Why the Women’s World Cup Matters to lobby for wholesale change aimed at ensuring that both here and elsewhere girls and women have equal access to the best playing fields, playing and practice times, funding and leadership roles.

She’s already had one victory. Last November, she made a 10-minute presentation to the Vancouver park board asking that it commit to equity in the use of its resources and facilities.

“The crazy part was that they agreed — unanimously, agreed,” says Serwetnyk. “Everyone agreed that they need to research and create equity laws or regulations by 2015 and that those could be used as a template in other cities.

“And first, we’d start with the (six other Canadian) World Cup cities.”

She has also talked to Premier Christy Clark about legislation or a resolution that all provincial sports funding would be equally distributed.

“She’s got a female sports minister. The attorney-general is Suzanne Anton. (Clark) could do it.”

There’s nothing new in what Serwetnyk is proposing.

In 1972, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment to its national education legislation called Title IX, which says that no person, on the basis of their gender, shall be denied the benefits of any education program or activity receiving financial assistance.

It means that boys and girls in all publicly funded schools have equal access to everything including funding for athletics and time in the gym or on the playing field.

As a student and soccer player at the University of North Carolina in the late 1980s, Serwetnyk was one of Title IX’s beneficiaries.

All these years later, Canada lags far behind despite what Serwetnyk describes as an “illusion that girls and women in soccer have it made.”

Of the players registered in Canada, 47 per cent are girls and women.

But until recently, there wasn’t a single woman on the Canadian Soccer Association’s national board. Currently, there are three women out of 14.

The women’s team has qualified for every World Cup since 1995 and won an Olympic bronze medal in 2012. The men’s team hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1986.

Yet, Serwetnyk estimates that funding for the women’s team is less than 10 per cent of what the men’s team receives.

The women’s team captain Christine Sinclair is a 10-time winner of the Canada Soccer Player of the Year, six-time nominee for FIFA’s World Player of the Year, winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year and an inductee into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

But fewer than one per cent of the professional and semi-professional coaches are women.

Soccer is far from unique.

Remember the desperate attempt female ski jumpers made to have a Canadian court force the International Olympic Committee to let them compete in the 2010 Winter Games?

Canada is also far from the worst example when it comes to gender discrimination in sports.

You might recall that despite the Olympic charter, which includes an equality section, the Games still have more men’s events than women’s. Or, the fact that the IOC has never sanctioned countries whose teams have no female members because girls and women aren’t allowed to participate in sports.

All of that also gives some idea of why Serwetnyk’s campaign strikes a nerve among the sporting establishment.

The international soccer federation — FIFA — recently sent her a two-page letter “politely requesting” that she quit linking her campaign to the World Cup. She’s heard similar things from the Canadian Soccer Association about what some describe as her negative messaging.

They’re foolish if they think that Serwetnyk will back down. Far from it.

She’s only just started to marshal her forces.

This Sunday at a fundraiser following the Canada vs. Mexico women’s match, soccer player and renowned artist Corinne Hunt will unveil the pendant she’s created as a donation to the cause.

The pendants — available in silver and gold — have a soaring eagle on the front and a tiny soccer ball on the back. They can be ordered online at whythewomensworldcupmatters.com.

As she says, there’s a problem here with soccer, and more generally with sports.

That’s not negative. It’s fact. So let’s address it. Make the necessary changes.

And, maybe, we might set an example for those parts of the world where girls can’t play and women are hobbled in burkas.

Carrie Serwetnyk, the first female inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame, is demanding change in the sporting world. Her non-profit organization, Why the Women’s World Cup Matters, aims to raise awareness about gender discrimination in sports.

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